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Medical Science for Crew as SpaceX Preps for Cargo Delivery

Colorful Aurora, Sparkling City Lights, and a Rising Sun
ISS044E002699 (06/23/2015) — This spectacular view of the Earth with colorful aurora, sparkling city lights, and a rising sun over a background of diamond twinkling stars was taken by members of Expedition 44 on the International Space Station on June 23, 2015.

The Expedition 44 trio aboard the International Space Station participated in a variety of medical science today. The crew is also preparing for the arrival of SpaceX CRS-7 scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly got together in the morning for ultrasound scans of their eyes with assistance from specialists on the ground for the Ocular Health study. Kelly also partnered with his fellow One-Year crew member Mikhail Kornienko for the Fine Motor Skills experiment that observes how astronauts operate and repair interactive, touch-based and sensitive technologies in space.

SpaceX is counting down to its launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon cargo craft Sunday at 10:21 a.m. EDT. Dragon will deliver all kinds of investigations enabling research into growing food in space, the chemical composition of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere and the causes of cancer and impaired immune systems. Among the international investigations are also student investigations.

The largest payload being delivered on SpaceX CRS-7 is the first of two international docking adapters (IDA #1). The IDA #1 will be installed on the forward port of the Harmony module so future commercial crew vehicles can dock at the space station.